A groundbreaking ceremony took place today in North Central Columbia, across the road from Hickman High School. The project is a joint effort between two local organizations, Central Missouri Community Action and Rainbow House, a child advocacy center.

Darin Preis is the executive director of CMCA.

"We are taking bids for construction right now. We’re going to open those bids on Dec. 16. And then once we have our contractors and construction folks identified, we can start as soon as they’re available. So we’ll have to work into their schedule, it’ll probably be middle of the winter that we start on the project, and then weather depending, it should be complete by end of the spring, early summer."